Game of Thrones: Patrick Malahide on Balon Greyjoy Being the Last of the Five Kings 

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The actor behind Balon Greyjoy talks the big Iron Islands death in "Home."

Full spoilers for Game of Thrones\' latest episode, "Home," continue below.

Balon Greyjoy was the last of the Five Kings, but finally he also fell -- literally. In Sunday\'s episode of Game of Thrones, Balon was killed by his younger brother Euron Greyjoy, meaning Melisandre\'s old spell finally took out Stannis Baratheon\'s final opponent (even though Stannis was long dead).

To discuss the death of the king of the Iron Islands, I got Patrick Malahide on the phone. We talked about the reason he knew Balon\'s death was coming, why he doesn\'t watch Game of Thrones and what he hopes Balon\'s legacy is -- plus which character he hopes succeeds him on the Seastone Chair.

Patrick Malahide and Pilou Asbӕk on Game of Thrones

IGN: This was a very big episode and very sad episode for Balon Greyjoy. Have you had a chance to watch it yet?

Patrick Malahide: You know, I\'ve not watched them at all. I decided -- a very early decision -- I decided I\'m going to watch this when it\'s all over rather than get involved in the whole complicated story. I just wanted to concentrate on the bits that he\'s in. So I haven\'t seen any of it. It\'s something, obviously, I\'m going to look forward to.

IGN: Balon Greyjoy, from a viewer\'s perspective, is a guy who\'s a little bit hard to like at times. Obviously you as the actor, you have to like him. You are him. What did you like and respect about Balon?

Malahide: David Nutter is one of the great directors I work with on this. He said to me early on, "He\'s like the landscape on which he lives," and that was incredibly helpful because the landscape is dour and stony like granite. His strength is in he is very, very unyielding. The idea of being loved, I don\'t think that would occur to him. He wants respect.

IGN: Even though the way he died made sense within the context of this story, there was a sort of outstanding death warrant on his head from the spell Melisandre cast a few seasons ago. Were you always aware of that?

Malahide: I\'m aware of it because fans keep on coming up to me saying, "You\'re still here. How come you\'re still here?" [

] Which is very amusing. Somebody offered to print me a t-shirt that said, "The last of the Five Kings. Still here." Last king standing. So that was fun. I know nothing about the series, but of course I hear about it because people are so wild about it and so committed. They keep feeding me stuff, and it amuses me because I\'ve sort of made this monastic vow not to get involved in anything else. I just do what I\'m there to do. I don\'t speculate, I don\'t comment on it, I just learn it and get inside it and do it on the day.

When I go home, people sidle up to me. There was a waiter, he was the maître d\' in a restaurant in a hotel, and I was staying there for the whole weekend. He didn\'t mention a word, but just as I was leaving he sidled up to me and said, "Winter is coming." [

] So what do you do? I just nodded grimly and walked out.

IGN: "What is dead may never die" -- those words will probably follow you.

Malahide: Yes, "what is dead may never die." It has such an enormous fanbase, it astonished me.

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IGN: In this episode where Balon dies, we get this introduction of Euron Greyjoy, who is a bit of a fan favorite. I know you only got a brief scene with Pilou Asbæk, but what was your experience shooting that sequence?

Malahide: It was wonderful working with Pilou, who is just such a delightful guy. I was only with him for two nights or something, but he was delightful. Of course I was a fan of his because I saw him in Borgen, the Danish series that he did. He is just a lovely guy. Once the water started -- because we were standing under these great big revolving rain machines, and it was in November in the very north of Ireland in a bleak quarry -- the most miserable place I have ever visited in my life -- and then they started the rain machines.

And there was Pilou, who was dancing around all excited on the bridge, which is swinging. They had ropes on it so it was swinging around to make it look like it was high wind. Then the rain machine started, and I\'ve never seen anyone\'s enthusiasm evaporate quite so quickly. [

] But we struggled through it. I look forward to seeing it. Plus, is [Balon] really dead? There are rumors that characters don\'t die in this series. I wouldn\'t believe all that you see.

IGN: It certainly is the right episode to sustain that theory. 

Malahide: Gemma [Whelan] is the other person I obviously worked with a lot. She was lovely. She\'s a really, really great person to work with. Amazingly, she\'s got a bubbly personality. She\'s the friendliest, so it\'s kind of strange that you see this tough character. She\'s the chip off the old block.

IGN: If you could choose who would succeed Balon on the Seastone Chair, is she your pick? Or is there someone else you think would do a good job?

Malahide: He doesn\'t express himself volubly about anything, but I think he has a sneaking admiration for his daughter certainly.

IGN: The other tragedy of this is that Balon and Theon never had a chance to see each other again --

IGN: OK, that\'s true. That\'s some good father/son bonding.

Malahide: Well, I don\'t know about bonding. I think I said something like, "Get that thing out of here." Actually, I haven\'t seen Alfie [Allen] for a couple of years. It was a long old gap between.

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IGN: Do you wish that Theon and Balon\'s storyline had been resolved?

Malahide: I don\'t think there ever would be a happy ending, but obviously you say, "Wouldn\'t it be nice if you had this scene," "wouldn\'t it be nice if you had that scene." It was kind of strange doing it because right from the beginning, when I first met the guys [showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] a long, long time ago, all I got was a side of paper with one speech on it. I went in, and I said to them, "Look, I don\'t know anything about this. This is a stab in the dark." I did it for them and they went, "Well, it\'s a hell of a stab." I thought I\'ll just concentrate on what I\'m given. You can get yourself awful wound up as an actor. You can only play what you\'re given at the end of the day, so I just thought, I\'ll make it a virtue. He\'s a remote character, he\'s stuck out on a rock -- I\'ll just do what comes in and let the viewer sort it out.

IGN: If this is the last time we see Balon on the show, what do you hope his lasting impact is on Game of Thrones?

Malahide: Well, I think the impact is there because it was quite a small part but a lot of people remember him in a way, and that\'s nice. Those phrases that you mentioned: "What is dead may never die." The phrase: "Did you pay the iron price, or the gold?" People really lock onto that. I\'ve seen it online, people referencing that phrase. It\'s not 

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IGN: So what\'s next for you? What can we see you on after this?

Malahide: I think you\'ll see it maybe not yet, but I just finished the second series of a series called Indian Summers. It\'s about the last years of the British empire in India, and I play the viceroy of India, which is really nice. A very sympathetic character, which is nice for a change. I usually play hard-nosed bastards, but this is a very warm, complex character. That first series went out in the States toward the end of last year, and I think it will go out probably the same time this year.

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO.

Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.

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